DV stands for Digital Video - video captured to a PC from a digital camcorder. There are two methods of storing DV video data, that is, type-1 and type-2. Both are stored usually in AVI files. Any DV stored as type-1 cannot be used with VfW-based editors. Microsoft provides DV encoder and decoder filters for DirectShow only, and will not provide support for encoding or decoding DV video data for VfW.
Get software: 1Click DV to DVD, DV MPEG4 Maker, Easy DV to DVD.

DV Type-1 Method

The native DV interleaved stream that is produced and consumed in I/O with a DV device contains DV compressed video and pulse code modulated (PCM) audio data. This single interleaved stream can be stored in an AVI file as "ivas" stream (for interleaved video/audio stream). Microsoft refers to this format as a type-1 DV AVI file. Because the type-1 format stores data as a single AVI stream, type-1 DV AVI files are not compatible with VfW. DirectShow, however, easily handles type-1 data streams by routing the streams to a DV Splitter filter that produces a DV-encoded video stream and one or more PCM audio streams for playback or subsequent processing.

DV Type-2 Method

Interleaved DV data can also be split into a single video stream and one to four audio streams within an AVI file. Microsoft refers to this format of storing DV data as type-2. This format has the advantage of being backward compatible with VfW, because it contains a standard video stream and at least one standard audio stream. The type-2 file format requires a small amount of additional processing to split and multiplex the DV stream during the functions of capture and transmit to IEEE 1394 DV devices.

miniDV

miniDV is the most popular digital camcorder format at the moment. miniDV is a video cassette designed for use in miniDV digital camcorders. The picture quality of digital video (DV) recorded on a miniDV cassette is basically identical or better to the quality of DV recorded on a Hi8 or 8mm cassette by a Digital8 camcorder. miniDV can have up to 530 lines of video resolution for some camcorder models. However, miniDV tapes are smaller which allows for smaller camcorders. miniDV tapes are available in lengths of 30 and 60 minutes (plus, recording in LP mode lets you extend total recording time with a 60-minute tape to 90 minutes).

DVD-10 is a double sided single layer DVD. Video DVD, DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W support this format. Effectively this means that DVD-10 is a dual-sided DVD-5 and can hold 8.75 gigabytes of data with 4.38 gigabytes on each side. Two-sided discs need to be flipped over in order to access the other data side. Unfortunately many blank DVD media advertisers mislead customers to believe that these discs are actually blank DVD-9 discs in hope that they could copy their dual-layer discs directly to blank discs.

DVD-18

DVD-18 is a double sided dual layer DVD which can fit up to 17 GB or 15.9 computer GB which some commercial video DVDs are using today (a DVD-18 is basically four pressed plastic DVD-5s pressed together, they are not burned). Video DVD supports this format but DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W does not support this format.

DVD-5

DVD-5 is a single sided single layer DVD that stores up to about 4.7 GB = 4 700 000 000 bytes and that is 4.38 computer GigaBytes where 1 kilobyte is 1024 bytes(4 700 000 000B/1024 = about 4 589 843KB/1024 = about 4485MB/1024 = about 4.38GB) . Video DVD, DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W support this format. Often refer to as "single sided, single layer".

DVD-9

DVD-9 is a single sided dual layer DVD which can fit up to 8.5 GB or 7.95 computer GB which many commercial video DVDs are using today (a DVD-9 is basically two pressed plastic DVD-5s pressed together, they are not burned). Video DVD supports this format but DVD-R/W and DVD+R/W does not support this format.

DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio is music disc, aimed to replace regular audio CD within next few years. DVD-Audio disc can contain 4 - 18 GBs of data, depending on how many layers and sides of the disc are used. Regular DVD-Audio disc contains various copy-protection methods and obviously the audio data itself -- audio can be stored in various formats, including uncompressed (L)PCM format (in frequencies from 44.1kHz up to 192kHz) with bitrates as high as 9.8Mbit/sec. Other formats allowed include Dolby Digital 5.1, MPEG-1 (stereo, audio layers II and III), MPEG-2 (multichannel), DTS and SDDS.
DVD-Audio discs can't be played with regular DVD-Video players -- the player has to be so-called "Universal DVD" player in order to support DVD-Audio (but if your player has DVD-Audio logo, it supports these discs). View Aiseesoft DVD Audio Ripper, ripping DVD to MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, AC3, OGG, RA formats easily.

CSS stands for Content Scrambling System. In DVD-Video, an encryption scheme designed to protect copyrighted material that resides on a disc by periodically scrambling the data using encryption keys. A tool named Decss can allow users to circumvent it. Although Decss didn't exactly crack the CSS, instead used leaked decryption keys.

VIDEO_TS

On a DVD disc, DVD movie files are stored in the VIDEO_TS folder. There is also an AUDIO_TS folder, this is where DVD-Audio would be stored, but usually the folder is empty.

AUDIO_TS

If you look at the files on a DVD, you will notice that most DVDs have both a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder, but the AUDIO_TS folder is usually empty. DVD-Audio would be stored in an AUDIO_TS folder but is a separate format to DVD-Video.

VOB

VOB stands for DVD Video Object. The VOB file is one of the core files found on DVD-Video discs and contains multiplexed Dolby Digital audio (normally AC3 format) and MPEG-2 video. VOB files on a DVD are numbered as follows: vts_XX_y.vob where XX represents the title and Y the part of the title. There can be 99 titles and 10 parts, although vts_XX_0.vob does not contain any video, usually just menu or navigational information. You can find them on a DVD video disc in a subdirectory labeled VIDEO_TS. View Xilisoft VOB to AVI MPEG Converter.

ISO

ISO refers also to a CD or DVD image (not picture..) file with an extension of ".iso". The extension comes from the full name of the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM file system specification, ISO 9660. Just like other CD/DVD image formats; ISO is a file that contains full content of the disc, including every single track, directory, file and information about the structure of the disc. Normally ISO files are being used to replicate existing CD/DVD discs, transfer those discs over the network to other location (or to other person) and burn back to CD/DVD which then would be an identical replica of the original disc.

miniDVD is a DVD video written onto a CD-R(W) instead of a DVD disc. miniDVD is also sometimes called cDVD. A miniDVD only fits about 15 minutes of DVD quality video on a 650MB CD-R(W). Basically miniDVD is a regular CD that has the same structure as regular DVD-Video has. Most of the standalone DVD players can be fooled to think that the disc inserted is a regular DVD-Video disc and to play it. But, one DVD quality movie (about 4GB) ends up taking 6 or more CDs (about 700MB per CD); therefore most of the people don't use miniDVDs, but use VCDs, SVCDs or their varieties.

VCD

VCD stands for Video Compact Disc. VCD is a standard developed in early 1990's that allows regular CD to contain 74 minutes of video and audio. Both, video and audio, are encoded in MPEG1 format and stored on the CD in specific format. A VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of software based decoder/player. VCD is a very popular method for movie distribution in China, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.. Some studios release some of their movies officially for VCD format in Asia . It has almost completely replaced regular VHS format in Asia, because cheap VCD recorders are widely available there. VCD's successor is called SVCD.

SVCD

SVCD stands for Super Video Compact Disc (called also SuperVCD or Chaoji VCD). SVCD is a new CD standard developed in 1998 by Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers, Chinese government and VCD consortium (Sony, Philips, Matsushita and JVC) that allows regular CD to contain 35-60 minutes of video and audio. A SVCD is very similar to a VCD, although SVCD's video bitrate is normally higher than VCD's. SVCD contains very good quality full-motion MPEG2 video along with up to 2 stereo audio tracks (MPEG1 stereo audio layer II, MPEG2 stereo audio layer II or MPEG2 Multi-Channel 5.1 surround audio) and also 4 selectable subtitles. A SVCD can be played on many standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of software based decoder/player. Just like VCDs (and audio CDs), SVCDs require a specific way how they are burned on the CD -- just sticking all the required files into CD structure doesn't make disc a SVCD compatible. Most of the new CD burning applications support SVCD already, so authoring your own SVCDs should be relatively easy.

XVCD

XVCD stands for Extended VCD. XVCD has same features as VCD but it is possible to use higher resolution and higher bitrates to get higher video quality. XVCD burned in "VCD" Mode on a CD-R or CD-RW can be played on some hardware VCD or DVD players and many computers with appropriate software.

XSVCD

XSVCD stands for Extended SVCD. XSVCD has same features as SVCD but it is possible to use higher resolution and higher bitrates to get higher video quality. XSVCD burned in "SVCD" Mode on a CD-R or CD-RW can be played on some hardware DVD players and many computers with appropriate software like a software DVD player or a media player with a MPEG-2 codec.

VHS

VHS stands for Vertical Helix Scan. VHS is the video cassette format and technology introduced by JVC in 1976. It is an analog format capable of delivering 240 lines of video resolution, along with stereo sound that's nearly as good as CD. Blank tapes usually feature either 120 minutes or 160 minutes of recording time at the highest recording speed (6 hours or 8 hours at the slowest speed).

VHSRip

In the Internet piracy scene, this term means a release of a movie, or some form of video, that has been taken from a VHS source. It has been captured and then re-encoded to a digital format. Some groups are dedicated to releasing VCD copies of movies that haven't been released on DVD as of yet.

SVHS

SVHS stands for SuperVHS. SVHS is an improved, high-resolution VHS standard developed by JVC to offer better video quality than the VHS format. SVHS recording can't be played back correctly with VHS videos, unless VHS VCR has something called "super quality playback" that allows playing SVHS tapes.

D-VHS

DVHS is a digital recording and playback format for High Definition material. It's based on the existing 1/2" VHS-sized cassettes.

CD-DA

CD-DA stands for compact disc digital audio. It is the original music CD format storing digital PCM data, defined by the Red Book standard.

CDA

CDA stands for CD Audio.You can play .cda files only from a CD-ROM. The tracks however, can be ripped to your HDD as a digital audio format like WAV, wma, or MP3 files.

DAT

DAT is used to refer to a certain tape backup format. But in audio/video terminology it normally refers to files that VideoCD has in its SEGMENT or MPEGAV directories. These DAT files are basically MPEG-1 files with an additional information and certain specific file structure -- they are NOT "real" MPEG-1 files and you need to convert them back to "real" MPEG-1 files in order to edit them even that most of the software players treat them as regular MPEG-1 files.

DTS

DTS stand for Digital Theater Systems Digital Sound and is a product of DTS, Inc.,DTS is a multichannel audio compression format similar to Dolby Digital/AC3 used in DVD-video discs, DVD-audio, 5.1 channel audio CDs, and some movie theaters. DTS differs from Dolby Digital in that it generally uses higher data rates and many have the opinion that DTS is better quality. DTS can only be on a DVD-video disc if accompanied by a Dolby Digital or LPCM track (for North America) or mpeg audio and LPCM (European Community) to ensure compatibility, because DVD players are only required to decode those standards in those regions.

AVCHD

AVCHD is a high-definition and standard-definition recording format for use in digital tapeless camcorders. The format is comparable to other handheld video camera recording formats, particularly HDV and TOD.

3GP is the MPEG-4 based video format used mostly in mobile terminals, such as mobile phones. This file format is designed for 3rd generation mobile devices. 3GPP is defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and 3GPP is defined by 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2. They are the worldwide standards for the creation, delivery and playback of multimedia over 3rd generation. These standards seek to provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia over newly evolved, broadband mobile networks (3rd generation networks) to the latest multimedia-enabled wireless devices, such as cell phones. View 3G2 Converter Guide: How to convert movie to 3G2/3GP/3GPP video

ASF

ASF stands for Advanced Streaming Format. ASF is a highly compressed file format that contains streaming video, audio. When an ASF file is played back, content is delivered to you as a continuous flow of data. You no longer have to wait for the whole video and audio file to fully download before you start to view them. So, this file format is specially designed to run on networks. When an AVI file is compressed and converted to an .asf file, the file begins playing after only a few seconds. ASF files can be played back with the Windows Media Player (provided the appropriate codecs are installed), streamed with Windows Media Services or optionally packaged with Windows Media Rights Manager. You can click here to find more information about ASF format.

AVI

AVI stands for Audio Video Interleaved and developed by Microsoft. An AVI file can use different codecs and formats so there is no set format for an AVI file unlike for example standard VCD video which sets a standard for resolution, bitrates, and codecs used. Most commonly used video codecs that use AVI structure are M-JPEG and DivX.View Wondershare AVI MPEG Converter and ImTOO AVI to DVD Converter, etc.

MPEG

MPEG stands for Moving Picture Expert Group in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. There are several audio/video formats which bear this group's name, such as MPEG1, MPEG2, and MPEG-4. View AVI MPEG to DVD Converter, Allok QuickTime to AVI MPEG DVD Converter and AVI MPEG Converter.

MPEG1

MPEG1 format is often used in digital cameras and camcorders to capture small, easily transferable motion video clips. It is also the compression format used to create Video CDs. In addition, The well-known MP3 audio format is part of the MPEG1 codec.

MPEG2

MPEG2 format, a video standard developed by MPEG group, is often used in digital TVs, DVD movies and in SVCDs. It is not a successor for MPEG1, but an addition instead. both of these formats have their own purposes in life. MPEG1 is meant for medium-bandwidth usage and MPEG2 is meant for high-bandwidth/broadband usage.

MPEG4

MPEG4, the latest compression method standardized by MPEG group, is used for both streaming and downloadable web content, and is also the video format employed by a growing number of portable video recorders. One of the best-known MPEG4 encoders is DivX which since version 5 has been fully standard-compliant MPEG4 encoder. View Powerful Video to MP4 Converter, DVD to MP4 Converter, and all MPEG4 guides here.

MPEG7

MPEG7 doesn't itself offer any new encoding features and it is not meant for representing audio/video content, unlike its siblings MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4. Instead, it offers metadata information for audio and video files, allowing searching and indexing of audio/video data based on the information about the content instead of searching the actual content bitstream. MPEG7 is based on XML and therefore is universal and all the existing tools that support XML parsing should be able to read the data as well, provided that they can ignore binary parts of the file. MPEG7 is not used at the moment, but it is under serious development and standardization process at the moment and hopefully we see first fully featured MPEG-7 tools within few years.

QuickTime

QuickTime is a file format for storing and playing back movies with sound. Though developed and supported primarily by Apple Computer, this flexible format isn't limited to Macintosh operating systems. it's also commonly used in Windows systems, and other types of computing platforms. In Windows, QuickTime files usually appear with the ".MOV" filename extension. Since 2002, Apple has started using MPEG-4 video encoding on its QT streams, producing much better, if not excellent, and video quality. View all QuickTime Guides here.

RealVideo is a streaming video format developed by RealNetworks. RealVideo is probably the most popular streaming video format in the world, although its quality is horrible if you compare it to MPEG4-based formats like DivX or WMV.

RM

RM stands for Real Media.Real Media is one of the most popular formats for streaming content on the Internet, RealMedia includes the RealAudio codec for sound clips and RealVideo codec for movies. RealAudio and RealVideo files are often given the common RealMedia ".RM" file extension. RealMedia files are often heavily compressed so they can stream over dial-up Internet connections. View Guide: How to convert Real Media RM to AVI with this RM to AVI converter?

WMV stands for Windows Media Video. WMV, developed by Microsoft, is a generic name of Microsoft's video encoding solutions and doesn't necessarily define the technology what it uses. In WMV7, Microsoft has used its own flavor of MPEG4 video encoding technology. You can use a .wmv file either to download and play files or to stream content. Windows Media Video is used for both streaming and downloading content via the Internet. Microsoft's Windows Media Player, an application bundled with Windows XP operating systems, lets you playback and manage a range of audio and video file types, including, of course, WMA and WMV. View Allok WMV to AVI MPEG DVD WMV Converter.

DivX

It is video encoding technology, released by company called DivXNetworks. The DivX codec is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec is so advanced that it can reduce an MPEG-2 video (the same format used for DVD or Pay-Per-View) to ten percent of its original size. View ImTOO DivX to DVD Converter.

XviD

XviD is an ISO MPEG4 compliant video codec. It's not a product but an open source project which is developed and maintained by people around the world. XviD, like many other MPEG4 formats, can be played with certain MPEG4 compatible, stand-alone DVD/DivX/XviD players. Please click here for more information about Xvid.

FLV

Flash Video is a file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–10. Until version 9 update 2 of the Flash Player, Flash Video referred to a proprietary file format, having the extension FLV. The most recent public release of Flash Player supports H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. Notable users of the Flash Video format include YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, Reuters.com, and many other news providers. View all flash guides here: Flash Video Articles.

AMV is a proprietary video file format, produced for MP4 players, as well as S1 MP3 players with video playback. There are now two different MTV formats: the older one for the Actions chip, and a newer one for ALi’s M5661 chip. This format for ALi one was ALIAVI.

DVR-MS

DVR-MS (Microsoft Digital Video Recording) is a proprietary video and audio file container format, developed by Microsoft. Audio and video are wrapped in an ASF container with the extension DVR-MS. Video is encoded using the MPEG-2 standard and audio using MPEG-1 Layer II or Dolby Digital AC-3 (ATSC A/52). The format extends these standards by including metadata about the content and digital rights management.

AVS

Audio Video Standard, or AVS, is a compression codec for digital audio and video, and is competing with H.264/AAC to potentially replace MPEG-2. Chinese companies own 90% of AVS patents. The audio and video files have an .avs extension as a container format.

MKV

Matroska file types are .MKV for video (with subtitles and audio), .MKA for audio-only files and .MKS for subtitles only. The most common use of .MKV files are used to store HD video files.The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks inside a single file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows.

H.261 is a 1990 ITU-T video coding standard originally designed for transmission over ISDN lines on which data rates are multiples of 64 kbit/s. It is one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). The coding algorithm was designed to be able to operate at video bit rates between 40 kbit/s and 2 Mbit/s. The standard supports two video frame sizes: CIF (352x288 luma with 176x144 chroma) and QCIF (176x144 with 88x72 chroma) using a 4:2:0 sampling scheme. It also has a backward-compatible trick for sending still picture graphics with 704x576 luma resolution and 352x288 chroma resolution (which was added in a later revision in 1993).

H.263

H.263 is a video codec standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T. H.263 has since found many applications on the internet: much Flash Video content (as used on sites such as YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, etc.) is encoded in this format, though many sites now use VP6 encoding, which is supported since Flash 8. The original version of the RealVideo codec was based on H.263 up until the release of RealVideo 8.

H.264/ MPEG-4 AVC

H.264 is a standard for video compression, and is equivalent to MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). As of 2008[update], it is the latest block-oriented motion-compensation-based codec standard developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and it was the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are jointly maintained so that they have identical technical content.

H.265

H.265 is a hypothetical future ITU-T recommendation for video compression coding under study for potential development by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). Although some agreements about the goals of an H.265 project have been reached, e.g. computational efficiency and high compression performance, no concentrated standardization effort is yet being conducted, due to insufficient readiness of technical advances at the moment; H.265 will be an entirely new standard and not an extension of H.264.

AAC stands for either MPEG2 Advanced Audio Coding or MPEG4 Advanced Audio Coding. The MPEG2 audio-encoding standard of the format is not backward-compatible with MPEG1 audio. MPEG2 AAC can produce better audio quality than MP3 using less physical space for the files. MPEG4 AAC can produce better quality and smaller files than MPEG2 AAC. AAC is the audio file format used by Apple in their popular iTunes Music Store. Files may appear on your system with the ".M4A" filename extension. View: How to convert AAC to MP3 with AAC to MP3 conversion tool, AAC to MP3 Converter, AAC Converter.

AC3

AC3 file, a Dolby Digital audio file, can be found as the standard audio track on Digital Versatile Discs (DVD) and High Definition Television (HDTV). This coder has been designed to take maximum advantage of human auditory masking in that it divides the audio spectrum of each channel into narrow frequency bands of different sizes optimized with respect to the frequency selectivity of human hearing. This makes it possible to sharply filter coding noise so that it is forced to stay very close in frequency to the frequency components of the audio signal being coded. By reducing or eliminating coding noise wherever there are no audio signals to mask it, the sound quality of the original signal can be subjectively preserved.

The audio file format used by Apple in their popular iTunes Music Store often appears on your system with the ".M4A" filename extension. M4A can produce better audio quality than MP3 using less physical space for the files. View the best M4A to MP3 Converter.

M4P

M4P format is "protected AAC". It is a format of purchased music that can be listened to only through the iTunes softer or an iPod.

MIDI

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A MIDI file doesn't contain actual audio data, but rather contains commands that let MIDI-capable synthesizers re-create a specific musical passage. The MIDI protocol has been used for years as a way for electronic musical instruments (like digital keyboards and sequencers) to communicate with each other. Computer sound cards typically feature the ability to interpret MIDI files into music.Since they don't actually contain the music itself, but rather the commands used to re-create music, MIDI files are a lot smaller than audio files like MP3s, WMAs, or WAVs. MIDI files are small and manageable enough that it's not uncommon to find them embedded in web pages, adding a sonic element to the surfing experience. MIDI files usually appear with the ".MID" filename extension.

MP2

MP2 stands for MPEG Audio Layer II or MPEG2 Audio, which used on VCDs, SVCDs and can be used DVDs. View MP2 to MP3 Encoder.

MP3

MP3 stands for MPEG1 (or MPEG2) Audio Layer III. Too often people refer MP3 as MPEG3, which is incorrect, because such format doesn't even exist. MP3 is a popular compression format used for audio files on computers and portable devices. It is a method to store good quality audio into small files by using psychoacoustics in order to get rid of the data from the audio that most of the humans can't hear. MP3's bitrates vary from 8kbps to 320kbps. A typical MP3 file encoded at 128kbps is near CD quality. MP3 audio is increasingly being used in video production coupled with various MPEG4 video codecs like divx. View CD to MP3 Ripper, DVD to MP3 Ripper, and MP3 WAV Converter.

M3U

M3U is a special type of metafile playlist that is used with MP3 files that have an .mp3 file extension. The .m3u files list one MP3 or other media file on each line, normally with full path or URL to the file. If the .m3u file is loaded to an MP3 player, the player normally plays the list of media files in the order they are listed in the playlist (unless options such as "randomize" have been selected in the MP3 player).

ID3 is a small piece of information stored physically inside the MP3 file (in the beginning or in the end of the file, depends on ID3's version). ID3 tags can contain various information about the MP3, like album name, song name, artist, original artist, genre, composer, releasing year, additional comment fields, etc.. Nowadays ID3s are de facto in audio world and they can be added to most of the audio formats and even to certain video formats in order to provide additional information of the file. View Xilisoft CD Ripper, ripping audio CD to MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, MP2, VQF, APE etc. It supports ID3 ver 1 and ver 2 tag.

Ogg

Ogg is the umbrella for a group of several related multimedia and signal processing projects that are open source and royalty free. Development of these projects is controlled by Xiph.org. View Allok OGG MP3 Converter. First and best-known project of these is called Ogg Vorbis, a royalty-free audio compression technology.

Ogg Vorbis

Ogg Vorbis is an "open-source" digital audio compression format. like MP3, It is a "lossy" compression system, removing frequencies deemed inaudible. Both formats offer variable-bitrate encoding options, for better efficiency. But the algorithms Ogg Vorbis uses to decide which information to discard differ from those used by MP3. Proponents claim that the Ogg Vorbis format outperforms MP3, producing files that are significantly smaller than MP3s of similar sound quality (or files that sound better than similarly sized MP3s).

VQF

VQF is one of the "alternative" audio compression formats back in 1990s that was aimed to take over MP3 by providing better audio quality than MP3 with lower bitrate. But Failed miserably due to various reasons, most notably because of restrictive licensing. Nowadays the only serious alternatives to MP3 are probably Ogg Vorbis and Microsoft's WMA.

WAV

WAV is a standard audio format for Windows operating systems, often used for storing high-quality, uncompressed sound. WAV files can contain CD-quality audio signals. However, CD-quality WAV files require relatively large amounts of memory. WAV files are probably the simplest of the common formats for storing audio samples. Unlike MPEG audio and other compressed formats, WAVs store samples "in the raw" where no pre-processing is required other that formatting of the data. The WAV file consists of three "chunks" of information: The RIFF chunk which identifies the file as a WAV file, The FORMAT chunk which identifies parameters such as sample rate and the DATA chunk which contains the actual data (samples).

WMA

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. WMA, an audio format owned by Microsoft, is a part of Microsoft's Windows Media technology, which includes Microsoft's Digital Rights Management tools, Windows Media Video encoding technology and Windows Media Audio encoding technology. Windows Media Audio is one of today's most popular Net audio formats. Though not as popular as MP3, WMA tends to outperform MP3 in the area of sound quality, particularly with files encoded at lower bitrates like 64 or 96 Kbps. This performance advantage makes it handy for applications like portable digital audio players, where total play time is limited by a finite amount of internal memory. View Magicbit WMA MP3 Converter.

APE

APE is a popular digital music file formats which was designed for the Monkey's Audio format. APE is a lossless compression audio technology; it is to say when you compress the audio data file of CD into APE format, you can restore the APE file format without any loss.

VC1

VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M video codec standard initially developed by Microsoft. It is now a supported standard for HD DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and Windows Media Video 9.

AU

The Au file format is a simple audio file format introduced by Sun Microsystems. The format was common on Next systems and on early web pages. Although the format now supports many audio encoding formats, it remains associated with the µ-law logarithmic encoding. This encoding was native to the SPARCstation 1 hardware, where SunOS exposed the encoding to apps through the /dev/audio interface. This encoding and interface became a de facto standard for UNIX sound.

NTSC stands for National Television System Committee. NTSC is a color TV standard developed in the United States in 1953 by National Television System Committee. NTSC is used in most of the American continent countries and in various Asian countries. Rest of the world uses either some variety of PAL or SECAM standards. NTSC runs on 525 lines/frame and it's vertical frequency is 60Hz. NTSC's framerate is 29.97 frames/sec.

PAL

PAL, was introduced in the early 1960's in Europe, stands for Phase Alternating Line. It has better resolution than in NTSC, having 625 lines/frame, but the framerate is slightly lower, being 25 frames/sec. PAL is used in most of the western European countries (except France, where SECAM is used instead), Australia, some countries of Africa, some countries of South America and in some Asian countries.

ASX

ASX stands for Advanced Stream Redirector. An asx file is used to store information on servers and media files for streaming video and audio over the Internet, such as multimedia web sites. The .asx file is a simple text file that contains server and media information, so you can easily find out the name of the file and server address of the streaming content with a text editor.

Codec

Codec stands for Coder/Decoder.Basically it is a piece of software or a driver that adds a support for certain video/audio format for your operating system. With codec, your system recognizes the format the codec is built for and allows you to play the audio/video file (=decode) or in some cases, to change another audio/video file into that format (=(en)code).

DRM

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. DRM doesn't mean just basic copy-protection of digital content (like ebooks, MP3s or DivX videos), but it basically means full protection for digital content, ranging from delivery to end user's ways to use the content. somehow DRM system needs to know when the copying is allowed and when not -- users also have rights to make copies to their closest relatives, etc. So, normally this has been solved by allowing "hops" -- original file can be copied, but the copy of the original file cannot be copied any further. Obviously this also causes problems, if user accidentally deletes the original file, but still has the legal copy of the file. Have a view at DRM Remover Software.

Region codes

Region codes in this instance mean flags implemented in DVD-Video discs that determine the geographic area where the DVD-Video disc is being sold and where it can be watched. These codes ensure that one country doesn't get a DVD movie before the same movie is out in that country's theatres. In their corporate omniscience, movie studios have carved the planet into regions with each region having a specific code. All DVD players and discs have region codes. A DVD player and disc must be of the same region or the disc will not play. If you want to watch movies from other countries, you need a multiregional DVD player. This will allow you to play any disc from any region. The region controls are also implemented in PC's DVD-ROM drivers, normally in three levels. First of all, if the DVD-ROM driver is manufactured after 1st of January, 2000, the driver itself has physical locks implemented in it to permit playback of only specific region code. Secondly, all newer operating systems, including Windows 2000 and Windows XP, have region control measurements built-in. And finally, the DVD player software, such as WinDVD or PowerDVD, has region control measurements built-in.

Streaming

Streaming format can send live or on-demand video or audio broadcast over the Internet. Popular streaming video formats include RealVideo, QuickTime (MOV) and WMV.

NSV

Nullsoft Streaming Video (NSV) is another example of streaming video formats, offered by various companies and media players, such as Windows Media, QuickTime video, RealAudio and RealVideo streams.